


New Game

by fenellaevangela



Category: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drabble Sequence, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-15
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2019-06-10 21:51:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15300783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fenellaevangela/pseuds/fenellaevangela
Summary: Alex and Bethany don't get out.





	New Game

**Author's Note:**

  * For [trane](https://archiveofourown.org/users/trane/gifts).



Spencer disappeared. Then Martha, then Fridge. It was Bethany's turn, but she hesitated before taking Nigel's hand. 

"Go on," Alex urged. 

Nigel's hand was still outstretched. He stood there, his eyes staring past them like Bethany and Alex weren't really there. It was totally creepy.

Bethany turned away. "I just . . . What if things are different when we get back?" she said.

Alex's eyebrows furrowed. "What? You haven't - "

"What if _we're_ different," Bethany said. "Alex, I - "

"Game idle," Nigel said. "Start new game now?" 

"What?" exclaimed Bethany. "New game?"

Alex clapped a hand over her mouth. "No!"

But it was too late.

-

 

Jumanji was different the second time around; the map had changed, the objective was new.

Alan Parrish's camp was still there.

At first Bethany hoped - like Alex had, twenty years before - that they could beat the game without other players. It was worth a try, wasn't it? And Alex agreed, even though he knew better, because he remembered the gnawing desperation that he'd felt when he first arrived. That Bethany felt now.

So they dodged wild animals and found missing puzzle pieces; leapt across stepping stones and solved riddles.

And ended up back at Parrish's camp, again and again.

-

 

There wasn't much to do in the game when they weren't trying a quest. Bethany didn't have her phone, sure, but even if she did, so what? There probably wasn't a signal out here anyway. And all the books they found were props - one page with a clue or riddle and nothing else. It was _so_ boring. 

So maybe Bethany spent some of her free time imagining meeting Alex in real life. His avatar was pretty hot, but would she be into him back home? She snuck fleeting looks at him and wondered.

Somehow she never caught him looking back.

 

-

Bethany hadn't even been on a quest. She'd just been picking fruit and the snake had been wrapped around a tree branch like some sort of trap, which wasn't _fair_. Snakes weren't even her weakness!

"I know," Alex said. His fingers hovered over the swollen bite on Bethany's wrist like he was afraid to touch it.

"Well, it's stupid!" Bethany snapped. "I can't even get something to eat - ouch!"

Alex snatched his hand away. "Sorry! But I need to - "

Bethany gritted her teeth and held out her arm. She couldn't look as Alex leaned in and sucked out the venom.

-

 

It rained in Jumanji like someone had turned on a faucet: suddenly and with force. Most of Parrish's camp was open to the sky and Bethany woke up gasping as the downpour soaked her hammock in the middle of the night. When Alex pulled her into a sheltered nook they were pressed close together, and when Alex plucked her glasses off Bethany knew.

"Alex - "

Alex placed a finger to her mouth, gently. She could just make out his smile in the dim light of the lone citronella candle that still flickered. 

"Just tell me if I can."

She leaned in.


End file.
